To test new passenger coaches, the research centre in Halle needed another high-speed steam locomotive. The new engine 18 201 was created from the 61 002 high-speed tender locomotive and parts of the H 25 024 high-pressure test locomotive. A modified new boiler of the class 22 locomotive with an extended smoke chamber and Giesl ejector served as a steam generator. The machine was equipped with a counter-pressure brake to ensure fast traveling at a continuously maintained high speed. Fast travel meant up to 175 km/h because the 18 201 was initially permitted for this maximum speed. Later, the allowed top speed was changed to 180 km/h, admittedly, only when the machine traveled in forward gear.

In 1967 oil-firing was installed. When the DR switched to the new computerised running numbers system in 1970, the machine was listed as 02 0201-0. It had already been given the status of a traditional locomotive in GDR times. It was often used for special trains as early as in the 1980s, either on order from the DMV, or - bringing in foreign currency - for western tour operators. In 1985, on the 150th anniversary of the German railways, the locomotive received its first permit to travel to the West. At that time, the loco was one of the major attractions at the Nuremberg exhibition.